


Bedtime

by MorbidBirdy



Series: Where I Belong [3]
Category: Gundam Wing
Genre: 1x3x1, Children of Characters, Domestic Fluff, Drabble, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-16
Updated: 2017-05-16
Packaged: 2018-11-01 08:48:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,564
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10918419
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MorbidBirdy/pseuds/MorbidBirdy
Summary: Work as Preventer agents requires Heero and Trowa to make special arrangements when it comes to the care of their daughter, Ava.  Heero returns from being away for a month on an assignment with a gift.





	Bedtime

**Author's Note:**

> This drabble takes place 5 years after "Where I Belong".

 Heero was making the ten minute drive from the Preventer Headquarters to his apartment. Tonight the drive seemed to stretch for even longer. His foot pressed heavily against the gas pedal as he guided his sedan through the dark and glossy rain soaked streets. He couldn’t remember a time before that he had felt so anxious to get home.

His roots were spread deep within the Copenhagen soil. A dull, unfamiliar ache of longing urged him through the city in the direction of the two people who made the city his home.  
  
The street light ahead switched to red as he approached. He reluctantly stopped the car and sighed impatiently as a couple walked out onto the crosswalk hand in hand. As they passed by the bumper the woman cast a glance in his direction, smiled and then shifted her focus from Heero to the bright green plush creature perched atop the center of his dashboard. He followed her gaze to the toy. It was a stuffed praying mantis. The unusual toy was lying belly-down with its long, hooked arms bent up and tucked under its chin in a cheerful, suggestively hopeful pose. He leaned across the center console to adjust one of its bent antennae and sighed.  Heero had known from the moment that he saw the mantis at the gift shop at the lunar spaceport that it was destined to come home with him.  Since then it had been crammed in the corner of his carry-on bag for two weeks. Now finally it was free to enjoy the ride home. Soon it would meet Ava, its new owner.

Their daughter Ava was an atypical two-year-old.  Trowa often referred to her as their ‘gamine little miss’, a phrase Heero had to admit was decidedly accurate.  She was spritely, adventurous, and adorably charming with a mischievous streak that put even Duo to shame.  She was rough-and-tumble, reckless (even more so than a typical toddler) and exceptionally sassy, clearly inherited from Trowa.  She loved to run and never seemed to tire, a trait that Catherine often jokingly said was given to her by Heero.

Ava was the culmination of both his and Trowa’s genetics, randomized and carried to term by Catherine, who had eagerly offered to be their surrogate at their two-year anniversary party. Heero had assumed that the offer was a joke, but then the he next thing he knew they were all at a reproductive specialist’s office discussing their options.  
  
Within the past six months their toddler had really come into herself and was beginning to display hints of their combined genetic traits. Every day she did something new and revealed a portion of her developing, vivacious personality.

It was why being away for practically a month had been so difficult.  Trowa was always good about sending Heero updates, videos and daily pictures to try and ease their separation, but it wasn’t the same.  He knew that he had missed a couple of firsts since he had been gone. She had her first haircut last week.  Trowa had tried putting it off until Heero came home, but her almond brown hair had grown so long and unruly that no amount of bows, butterfly clips or headbands could tame it.  The last picture Heero had received was from Catherine. It was a quick, blurry snapshot of Trowa and Ava after the little girl’s new haircut. They were sitting on the same side of a table at an ice cream parlor with spoons in their hands as they flanked a massive banana split. It was clear by the photo that Ava intended on devouring as much of that sugary treat as she could while Trowa’s slightly concerned and disapproving expression verified that the enormous desert was all Catherine’s doing. The picture as now the wallpaper of Heero’s phone.

He ran his hand through his hair - more of a nervous gesture than an attempt to straighten it - and urged his car through the light as it turned green.  He wondered what else he had missed out on in the month since he had been away. He had never put much value on time before, but now whenever he was forced away from home by Preventer for lengthy assignments he found himself counting the minutes until his return.

When Heero and Trowa had made the decision to have their own child they discussed their futures as Preventer agents. Trowa worried that the danger that came along with field work would make it impossible to have a normal family life. They had both considered resigning, but after careful consideration decided against it. Both enjoyed their work. They were good at it, and it nurtured aa part of them that they would otherwise have had to suppress and deny. They both also believed in Preventer’s mission, and decided that they would remain enlisted in the elite field division as long as only one of them went out into the field at a time. The work had the potential to be dangerous, and they owed it to their daughter not to jeopardize both of her parent’s lives at once. They also decided to avoid discussing work when they were at home, and to try their best to keep their pasts from invading their present lives.  

Heero couldn’t remember any of the events during his life before the Eve War fondly, and he suspected that Trowa didn’t either. Those times were now over, and Heero had no use for reminiscing about the things he had done. He had to live with the weight of that guilt for the rest of his life, and he didn’t want his daughter to think of her parents as the dysfunctional teenaged terrorists that they once were. He knew that one day they would have to explain who they were to her, but that occasion was years in the future.  
  
Until then he wanted nothing more than for her life to be that of a normal child, and he wanted her to maintain an innocence that he and Trowa were never allowed to have.

As he turned down the final street that led to the apartment Heero’s thoughts drifted to Trowa. After a short period of dating and a year-long engagement they had eloped. The past five years had been the most amazing time of his life thus far, and a time that Heero liked to think had come to define who he really was. He needed Trowa. He hadn’t realized just how much he needed him until he was there.

The way they had gotten together was unusual. After both their lengthy, serious relationships had both failed, they finally had a chance to consider one another as someone other than just another Gundam pilot or a friend.  After his break-up with Relena, Heero had retracted into a cold shell of denial, self-doubt and apathy. It had taken Trowa’s gentle guidance for Heero to finally accept himself as someone with self-worth and not tied to the ambitions of others. Heero couldn’t imagine who he would be now, five years after the fact, without his husband’s positive influence.

-

“Water go bye bye!” the cheerful voice of their bubbly toddler bounced off the walls of the bathroom, mixing with the sound of splashing water. The curious little girl squatted over the drain, hands on her little knees as she watched the water swirl downwards, signaling the end of bath time. She could feel the lukewarm water rushing past her ankles and wondered where it was going and if she’d see it again. Bath time was her favorite time, especially when both of her daddies were there to entertain her, but tonight she only had one.

Ava straightened up and looked at Trowa questioningly. “Gone…” The water was almost completely drained and she was reluctant to get out of the tub. “More?”

“You’re starting to turn into a prune, little mermaid.” Trowa was on his knees and leaning over the edge of the tub. He held a fluffy purple towel up and waited for his daughter to come closer before snatching her playfully and wrapping her in a warm embrace. He held her against his chest and tilted his head down to nuzzle the top of her wet hair where the scent of her strawberry baby shampoo still lingered.

As she wiggled in his arms and pulled away Trowa studied her face. He pushed the mess of wet hair from her forehead and caught her blue-green eyes with his. When Ava smiled up at him he felt his heart flutter, and knew that he’d give her the world. He’d do anything for their daughter.

Even after two years, the concept of parenting still felt foreign to him. Trowa was learning as he went, picking up naturally on some things, while failing horrible at others. He was reminded of this daily while Heero was away. Raising a toddler by yourself sometimes felt more challenging than piloting a Gundam during a battle in space.

Trowa missed Heero just as much as their daughter did. She had asked every night for the last month when ‘daddy’ would be home, and Trowa patiently reminded her that it would be just a few more days, although he was never sure. There wasn’t a set ETA with Preventer missions. Sometimes you’d be gone for only a few days, sometimes a few months. Every time Trowa looked down at Ava he was reminded of how in love he was with her father, and he ached for Heero’s return.  

“Alright, you’re all dry.” Trowa let the squirming little ball of energy go and watched as Ava ran circles around him in the bathroom. He stood up and went to retrieve her robe from the back of the door, and then reached out and caught her during one of her passes by his legs. “Panda!” Ava held her hands up in the air and eagerly waited for her daddy to help her get into her robe.

It was a black and white terry-cloth robe with a hood in the shape of a panda’s face and little black, perky ears. Trowa held it open for his daughter while she slipped her arms through the holes and let her daddy wrap it around her to secure the tie in the front. He finished by draping the hood over her slightly damp hair.

-  
  
Heero pulled into the parking garage in the basement level of their apartment building, scooped up the praying mantis plushy and his Preventer uniform jacket from the front passenger seat and slid out of his car. He tugged his jacket over his arms, being careful not to agitate the bandaging wrapped over his forearm. The injury was rather minor - only a bullet graze from the arrest he and Duo had made a few days prior - but he didn’t want Ava or Trowa to see it when he first walked in. He didn’t want to ruin that moment by making Trowa worry.  
  
He zipped up the front of his coat halfway, left the rest of his luggage and bags in the car, locked it and walked briskly to the elevator. He pounded the button with his thumb and waited, foot tapping impatiently, and decided that it was running slower than usual or that it must be broken. He opted for the stairs, ducked through the door and took them two at a time up to the third floor. He fumbled with the keys in his pocket, dropped them, cursed under his breath and knelt to scoop them up before trying again irritably. He jammed the key into the lock and turned the knob, swung it open and ducked inside. 

The doorway was littered with shoes. Brightly colored men’s running shoes, Trowa’s perfectly polished uniform shoes, slip-on house shoes, and a neat little row of little girls shoes. He toed his own off quickly and shoved them with his foot between a pair of green froggy-themed rain boots and a pair of red sparkle ballerina flats and slipped down the main hall. He could hear the familiar cadence of Trowa’s voice speaking calmly while an incoherent and shrill little girl’s voice replied. He felt the knot that had been forming in the center of his chest the entire ride home begin to harden.

“No ice cream before bed,” Trowa repeated as he crossed his arms over his chest. He wasn’t giving in this time, even if she looked up at him with those big eyes and cherub cheeks. Trowa averted his gaze just incase.

Ava pouted, pulled the panda hood tighter around her face and stomped her little feet. She hated it when she didn’t get what she wanted. It was way easier to manipulate her other daddy. She heard a sound from the hallway. Her head snapped up and she looked at her closed bedroom door. “Who?”

Trowa’s ears caught the sound of the front door opening and closing. His body stiffened in alert and he unfolded his arms from his chest, fists forming at his sides. They weren’t expecting any company, and usually Cathy knocked before she came barging in. He heard the footsteps begin sneak down the hallway.

“Daddy!” Ava chirped, running up to Trowa. She grabbed his hand and lead him to the bedroom door. “It’s daddy!” Trowa pulled her back cautiously, out of habit, but the little girl tried charging forward, reaching her small hand up for the doorknob.

Heero heard Ava’s excited shriek from inside her room. He smirked and crept as quietly to the door as he could and let his fingertips gently grasp the knob. He turned it slowly and firmly, let it swing open a few inches, stopped it and poked the mantis doll through it so that only it’s head and hooked arms were visible.  
  
“BUG!” Ava screamed excitedly. “Daddy, look! Bug!” She rushed forward and yanked the door open, her blue-green eyes seeking out the rest of the bug, having temporarily forgotten about her other daddy until she spotted him. “Daddy!”  
  
She stomped her feet and waved her arms at her sides, her ‘happy dance’, and shrieked again. “Daddy is bug!”  
  
“Yes, I am bug,” Heero replied with a smile. He knelt to the floor with the toy in hand and nearly fell backward as she tossed her tiny body against his chest. As he wrapped his arms around her tiny frame he felt the hard knot in his chest beginning to unravel and every tense muscle in his shoulders began to relax as he melted around her. He buried his face into the top of her panda robe and sighed a happy sigh before he looked up at Trowa.

Trowa stood at ease when he saw his husband, but his heart continued to race in his chest. Heero hadn’t told him he’d be returning home that night. The surprise was more than welcomed. The shock slowly dissipated from his eyes, transforming into relief. Heero was home safe.

Ava looped her short arms around her daddy’s neck, standing up on her tiptoes so she could reach. “Surprise!” She exclaimed against his ear and giggled as his fluffy brown hair tickled her nose. She wasn’t going to let go of him anytime soon.

Heero feigned a shocked expression as she yelled and raised his eyebrows, his smile never leaving his face. He was always accused of being cold and aloof at work, but he found it easy to smile when he was at home and it felt as if it had been a month since he had done so. He hooked his uninjured arm behind Ava’s legs and lifted her up from the floor, nuzzled the side of her head and kissed her cheek.  
  
“Eew, daddy!” she said playfully, wiping the spot he had kissed with the back of her hand. “I clean! Yucky…”  
  
“Sorry,” he replied as he handed her the plushy. She giggled with delight, held it with one hand and made it attack the side of his neck. He laughed and sought Trowa out with his eyes as he crossed the small bedroom carrying her. He quickly closed the distance between them.

“Let me give your dad some of my yucky, then,” he said as he reached out to grasp Trowa’s handsome face with a cupped hand his cheek. “Sorry I didn’t call,” he said faintly. He had seen Trowa’s surprised expression as he had entered the room. In his mad rush to get home he had completely forgotten to call.

“A call would have been nice. Or even a text… but,” Trowa closed the distance between them and placed a light kiss to Heero’s lips, unable to resist the magnetic pull. “A surprise once in a while is always nice.” He was just glad to have his husband home. He wrapped an arm around Heero’s waist and gave him a side hug, silently inspecting the other for any signs of injury while Ava happily made friends with her new bug friend.

“Welcome home.” Trowa observed that the other looked exhausted, which was to be expected. He saw how Heero favored his left forearm, but didn’t say anything.

Heero felt like his heart was going to burst. He had been waiting for a month for this moment, and the feeling was more than he could have ever imagined. He sighed as he was kissed, glanced down at Ava, who was completely engrossed with making her new toy’s antennae wiggle, and leaned over to steal another kiss from the taller man’s mouth.  
  
“Ew, yucky! Daddy, no!” Ava chastised him as she pummeled their chests with her mantis. Upon being struck with the soft toy Heero’s mouth turned up against Trowa’s lips to form a grin before he broke their exchange and playfully tickled Ava’s side.  
  
“You think I’m yucky?” he asked in a dark, almost menacing voice. Ava smiled and began to shriek, familiar with the tone as being one her daddy often used when they played. She swat at his head with the toy. Heero leaned his head to the side to avoid the blow and leaned in to kiss her cheek. The toddler wailed in agony.  
  
“Noooo!! NO!!!! YUCKY DADDY!”

“…I was about to put her to bed.” Trowa watched the two with an amused expression. She was going to get all riled up now that Daddy was home. _Oh well._ He leaned in and attacked Ava’s other cheek with a kiss so that the little girl was sandwiched between her two parents, squirming so hard that Heero had to tighten his grip so she wouldn’t fall.

Trowa finally pulled away when a plush bug was tossed at his face. He wasn’t quick enough to dodge the attack. “You got me!” He grabbed the stuffed mantis before it could roll off of his chest and fall to the floor, and pretended that it was attacking his neck. “Ahhh!”

Ava started to laugh and clap her hands, glad the bug was attacking her dad and breaking up the yucky kiss. “Go bug, go!”

Trowa let the bug win, faking his death as he fell dramatically to the floor, the plush resting atop his chest in a victorious pose. He closed his eyes and played dead.

Heero chuckled as Trowa went into his death throes and then forced his most serious expression.  
  
“You killed him,” Heero said with a glare. Ava was gawking down at Trowa, and then looked at her murderous bug in horror.  
  
“Daddy!! NOOO!” she wailed desperately, kicking at Heero to let her down. He set her on the floor and watched as she began climbing frantically over Trowa’s limp body. He could see a ghost of a smile flicker across his face as he tried to remain convincingly dead.  
  
“Such a clown,” Heero muttered just loud enough for Trowa to hear him before he crossed his arms over his chest and looked down sternly at Ava. “You have to kiss him, or he’ll stay that way forever.”  
  
“Daddy! Dead!” she knelt down on the floor beside Trowa and stared into his face for a moment before reluctantly leaning down to plant a sloppy toddler kiss on his mouth.

Trowa let out a startled gasp as he came alive with the help of the kiss. He brought his hands up to Ava’s sides and started to tickle her, laughing at her shocked expression. She wiggled on top of his chest and managed to free herself, crawling onto the floor to make her escape.

“He’s alive!” Her panda robe was starting to slide off her body, the tie dragging on the floor as she crawled away from the tickle monster.

Heero laughed as she began her escape from her newly formed-zombie parent and carefully scooped her up off of the floor to save her.  She felt heavier than he had remembered, and he wondered how much more she had grown since he had seen her last. Her straight bang haircut made her face appear rounder than he remembered, and he was convinced she had grown taller. He hugged her squirming body against his chest and carried her to her dresser and opened the top drawer.  
  
“Okay, let’s get dressed. You pick,” he said as he revealed her pajama selection to her. She happily chose a two-piece Lion King pajama set and a matching pair of underwear. She always insisted that everything match, even her undergarments. He grabbed her selections and set her back on the floor before he knelt down to carefully slide off her robe and begin to tug her squirming limbs through her shirt.  
  
“RAWR!” she growled at him as her head popped through the neck hole of her top.  
  
“You’re a monster?” he asked with a smile.  
  
“No, daddy. I a girl,” she said in a serious tone that mirrored one he often used as she shoved her legs through her undies and pants with his assistance.  
  
“Oh, I see,” Heero replied. He draped her robe across the top of her dresser, grabbed her miniature hairbrush and began slowly combing out her hair. She frowned up at him and gestured for it with her stubby fingers.  
  
“No, me. I do!” she insisted. He blinked, handed her the hairbrush and waited patiently as she brushed at her head in the wrong direction, forcing her hair to stand up at an unnatural angle. He didn’t interrupt her and when she had indicated that she was finished he casually ran his hand across the top of her head to right it.  
  
“Time to go to sleep,” Heero informed her. She whined and pouted, but unfortunately this time Heero was too tired for her usual methods to very effective against him.

“We can play tomorrow,” Heero promised. Despite the following day being a Thursday, he had requested that he have the next two workdays off. He wasn’t sure what Trowa was doing this week - his husband’s career was his own business - but Heero decided that Preventer had him for a month, they would have to settle with him being absent for an extended weekend.  
  
He stood and gently took her hand as she led him to her bed and knelt down beside it while she situated herself beneath her blue Cookie Monster bedspread. She made a grabby-hands gesture at Trowa, who was standing beside him holding her new stuffed animal.  
  
“Bug! BUG!” she said as Trowa handed it to her. She set the mantis beside her and tucked it carefully beneath her blanket before she began to gather the rest of her collection of unusual bedmates to systematically tuck them in. Heero surveyed her curious collection.

Heero and Trowa always brought something home for Ava when they returned from an assignment. The creatures in the bed represented those missions: a purple octopus with a pencil-thin mustache from L5 colony cluster spaceport, A white and blue striped squid with rubbery tentacles and enormous, googly eyes from the Lunar Mall, a realistic cicada plush that buzzed when you squeezed it from L1 colony cluster, a bright red lobster stuffed animal from Boothbay Harbor in Maine on Earth, and now a pale green praying mantis from the MO-V asteroid belt transportation hub gift shop all joined her on the narrow toddler-sized bed.

“Mantis.” Trowa stood next to Heero while his partner tucked their daughter in, sliding his hands into the back pockets of his jeans.

“Man...es...” Ava yawned, suddenly tired. She closed her eyes and snuggled up to her new toy, feeling extremely content now that both dads were home. She couldn’t wait to play with Heero tomorrow.

“Close enough.” Trowa smirked. He had to admit that the new addition to her little creature family was rather cute. _Good pick, Heero._

 _“_ Goodnight, Ava,” Heero said in a hushed voice. He leaned down to kiss the top of her head before quietly retreating from the room. He waited outside the door until Trowa finished saying his goodnight. The sleeve of his jacket had shifted and tightened around his bandaged arm in the process of playing with Ava and had agitated his wound. He tugged it straight before deciding to just shed the uniform top altogether and draped it over a nearby chair. The sleeve of his white button-down shirt was already rolled up to his elbows out of the way of the nude-colored, stretchy bandage top. The injury hadn’t bled through its stitches in the last twenty-four hours which was a good sign.  
  
As Trowa materialized through the door he waited until the taller man clicked it shut before impatiently grabbing his hands with his own and pulled him closer.  
  
“I missed you,” he murmured as he tugged him closer so that they were standing toe to toe with both hand’s finger’s entwined. He had never needed anyone the way he needed Trowa. The very cells of his body seemed to tingle with familiarity as his partner grew closer.

“Good.” Trowa smirked, although it was obvious he had missed the other as well. “How did everything go? What happened to your arm?” His gaze traveled from Heero’s handsome face down to his arm where a bandaged peaked out from under his shirt. He unlocked his fingers from his partner’s and brought his hand to inspect the arm closer. Fingers trailed up his lover’s forearm, stopping at the edge of the bandage. His left eyebrow arched curiously.  

“Perpetrator didn't want to go without a fight. The usual,” Heero muttered in his usual flat affect. It had only required five stitches, which was merely a scratch by his book. It wasn't unusual to come home with any number of scrapes, cuts or bruises. He didn't want to talk about work. He had spent almost a solid month doing nothing but that, and now that he was home all he wanted to do was pretend that the Earth-Sphere was nothing but a Utopia of happy rainbows and sunshine and that drug and weapons trafficking and underground civil unrest didn't exist.

He slid his hands up Trowa’s torso until they were on the opposite sides of his face and studied the thoughtful pair of emerald green eyes for a long moment before he propped himself up onto his toes to close the gap between their faces and kissed him. After a few moments he pulled away just long enough to mumble against Trowa’s smooth, pliable mouth.

“Now it’s time I put _you_ to bed.”

 


End file.
